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Corbettites
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Corbettites as a whole
Corbettite Order
A monastic order dedicated to the operation of a passenger rail line network throughout Europa. Staunchly neutral and quite able to defend their neutrality, they serve a vital role in transportation through the politically volatile realm.
- Artifact Collection Agency: Of a sort. Among their duties is acting as custodians for all sorts of horrific products of deranged science that event most Sparks would prefer never to see the light of day.
- Badass Normal: The majority of Corbettites are perfectly normal (for a given value of "normal") people who joined up for a variety of reasons. Doesn't make them any less dangerous, especially since they're the ones keeping Spark-created blasphemies under lock and key; even the infamously rogue House Heterodyne trust them to keep such things safely secured, and won't cross them.
- Badass Preacher: Corbettite trains can, will, and on many occasions have shot their way through a wide variety of horrific constructs and clanks wandering the Wastelands that threatened their railways. The monks are so well regarded for their toughness that when the Old Heterodynes accidentally made something so dangerous that it scared them, they entrusted it to the Corbettites for safekeeping. And the monks were able to successfully extract concessions from them (which the Heterodynes actually honored for centuries) in return for doing so.
- In addition, the Corbettites provide free "assassin disposal" services and are skilled enough to be able to take down Smoke Knights by surprise.
- When one character asks why the Corbettites would build a massive crypt filled with all manner of incredibly deadly traps, the immediate answer is "Because it would be awesome."
- When Martellus' fleet foolishly opens fire on their fortress depot, the Corbettites immediately return fire and destroy eight of his airships with a single shot
. Notably, while Martellus can be an idiot, he's not this big an idiot; a subordinate went behind his back to order the attack. Martellus personally tossed him out of the command airship for his stupidity.Father Gerät: Yes, it has been a long time since we faced the trials of raiders...
Corbettite: Exactly, and are we strong enough to stand against them?
(massive explosions)
Father Gerät: ...I meant, will we find the strength to spare any of them?
- Binding Ancient Treaty: Between the Corbettites and the Heterodyne family. So long as the Corbettites keep some artifacts that are so dangerous that the Heterodynes couldn't trust themselves to protect them without being tempted to use them again safely locked away, no Heterodyne troops will attack Corbettite trains, railways or stations. The agreement has been in place for centuries, and has never once been broken.
- Doomsday Device: Their secondary mission is to find and collect these (and science Gone Horribly Wrong) to be locked in the vault, being the only group who can trusted not to use them.
- Rail Enthusiast: Explained in Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle as to why some of them signed up — it's a chance to drive big shiny trains really fast.
- Secret Government Warehouse: Have several vaults that contain various dangerous Sparky creations that are entrusted to them because everyone in Europa knows that they can be trusted to never try to use them.
- Secret Test of Character: Gives one to Vipsania Perrault when she seeks their assistance via bribing individual brothers to help her loot an abandoned Dragon Hoard containing a dangerous Spark device. The first brother she talked to who "wasn't too holy to take a bribe" is dragged away by other members, the second misses their second meeting because he was Reassigned to Antarctica, and the third is sealed up in a room. Brother Marcus explains that when someone shows up asking questions and trying to bribe members of the Order, they will try to scare them off first, then assist them if they continue.
- Seeking Sanctuary: If a traveler gets on one of their trains and gives the monks an honest explanation of who they are, where they're going, and why, then they are entitled to sanctuary and safe passage until the train gets to their stop.
Brother Ulm
Brother Ulm, Corbettite Train Conductor
A brother and confessor of the Corbettite Monks, who serves as the Conductor aboard the Wyrm of Limerick, a rail liner with a massive dragon head figurehead on the front of its locomotive.
- Badass Preacher: Presumably, he has received the same training that enables his brothers to dispatch Smoke Knights skulking around the train looking for Margarella.
- Brain Uploading: After nearly dying when the Beast was finally unplugged (which involved an explosion), he was instead uploaded to be a construct consciousness in the Corbettites' brand-new super-locomotive that Agatha also helped complete and perfect, in a manner similar to Castle Heterodyne. Though it's ambiguous whether the procedure involved full Brain Uploading or just Wetware CPU.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: He was on the verge of pressing the "Confessional Eject" button instead when Agatha was in there, but thought better of it.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: After trying to kill Agatha for fear of her causing his order trouble at their base, his punishment is to accompany her around and do her no harm, while also making sure she doesn't cause trouble.
- Dysfunctional Family: When commiserating with Agatha in the confessional.Brother Ulm: Sure, and my own family is a gift from the Almighty... which is a fine thing, since I certainly wouldn't have paid for them.
- Fiery Redhead: He can vary from kindly priest to steam-headed rather quickly. Especially if he thinks there's a threat to the Corbettites.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Becomes much more antagonistic towards Agatha when forced to take her with the other passengers to the Corbettites' headquarters because he fears she'll unleash some Heterodyne creation they have locked up there. While he's less on her side, he's still not a bad guy.
- Irish Priest: Complete with usage of irish colloquialisms like "Sure, and" or "boyo".
- Ironic Hell: Averted and in fact Inverted, with his transformation into locomotive being utter heaven for a Corbettite monk.
- Killed Off for Real: He dies stopping The Beast, when ripping out its brain results in a large explosion... Or so it seemed.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Worried about letting Agatha into the stronghold, he goes to quietly shoot her. Another monk stops him.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He discusses this with Wooster upon realizing that maybe Agatha's not evil like the old Heterodynes were (and after she's not the one to release the monster).
Brother Matthias
Brother Matthias, Corbettite Train Engineer
- Not every Spark is crashing around trying to take over Europa, you know! Some of us get to work on trains! Beautiful, shiny, wonderful trains! Other Sparks beg us to build lines into their territories! Muhahahaha!
The chief engineer of the Wyrm of Limerick, as well as a Spark. He is by far the most...eccentric of the Corbettites, and as such Brother Ulm tries to keep him away from passengers as much as possible.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His propensity to go off on a sparky tangent despite immediate peril he must focus on seems to be infectious to other Sparks as both Tweedle and Agatha get swept up in his tangents too.
- Berserk Button: Do not insinuate that his train will ever be late.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Especially in regards to trains. To the point where he cares more about how awesome the Beast is than the fact that his order needs to take it out. Thankfully his rant on the subject still gives Vadaxus the information he needs.
- Mad Scientist: The Wyrm's flamethrower? His doing. Just look at his manic evil smile in his picture: That's some Spark-level evil grinning.
- Rail Enthusiast: Brother Matthias likes trains quite a bit, to the point that he sees working on them as far more fulfilling than the things most other Sparks get up to, like ruling empires.
Father Gerät
Father Gerät, Abbot of the Depot Fortress of Saint Szpac
The Abbot of Saint Szpac, and Ulm's superior. He describes himself as an administrator, and isn't as worried about the theological implications of the Order's work.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Gerät" is German for "device".
- Swiss-Army Appendage: Father Gerät's prosthetic arms have been seen as a tentacle, a water nozzle, a hammer, pincers, claw machine-style grabbers, and a hand.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Gerät's a reasonable man, and is willing to hear Ulm out when he's caught attempting to kill a passenger. He's also not keen at all on being ordered by a higher power in the church to obey "King" Martellus, and most certainly did not see one of Agatha's entourage knock Martellus out.
Brother Vadaxxus
Brother Vadaxxus, Saint Spzac Depot Head Chef
The head cook and military leader of the Depot Fortress of St. Spzac.
- Almighty Janitor: When he's not leading the battle against whatever is besetting the Fortress, he's the head cook. He says preparing food for all the Corbettites at the fortress makes planning a battle look easy in comparison.
- Electronic Eyes: Steampunk/Gaslamp Fantasy variant. Vadaxxus's left eye is not the one he was born with.
- Frontline General: Vadaxxus is out front leading the Corbettites against the Beast.
Humongulus
Humongulus, Saint Spzac Depot Yard Hauler
This is in fact how pulling is done!
- Greetings, brother! Humongulus is here to punch and lift things!
An enormous Clank in service to the Corbettites. He works at their monastery lifting platforms into position. A one-shot taking place apparently after the series proper depicts Humongulus now residing in Mechanicsburg, working at a newly-constructed Corbettite trainyard and still more than happy to take any sort of challenge posed to him, be it a show of strength or a brawl with Franz.
- Big Damn Heroes: He shows up just in time to stop the Beast from reclaiming its lost cars.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Becomes fast friends with Franz following their fight.
- Fear of Thunder: "Humongulus does not fear the rain! But the lightning..."
- Graceful Loser: When Franz manages to get the upper hand during their fight by exploiting the fact that Humongulus insides are not waterproof, he happily surrenders and compliments Franz for his ingenuity.
- Gratuitous Latin: Parodied. Humongulus will spout off the occasional Latin phrase, but if you translate it, it will usually be fairly modern vernacular.Humongulus: What is this? Humongulus cannot move! Non est frigidus!Lat.
- Humongous Mecha: It's right there in the name, after all. Humongulus is one of the biggest Clanks seen to date.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: He somehow produces his sword out of nowhere, and the accompanying monk says that he has never asked where Humongulus keeps his tools.
- Large Ham: In every sense of the word. Particularly when it comes to his lifting abilities.
- Noodle Incident: Brother Ulm explains that, since he joined the monastery, Humongulus hasn't leveled any mountains in decades...
- Odd Friendship: With Franz, despite resembling a knight.
- The Philosopher: Humongulus has given a lot of consideration to whether or not lifting things truly induces happiness or if he simply does it because it's what he was created to do and doesn't know anything else. It's enough that it makes Franz ask himself the same question.
- Pretentious Latin Motto: Parodied, with a gratuitous dose of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe; Humongulus has a motto scrawled on his chest reading "Dost thou even lyft?"
- Serious Business: Lifting things. It's what he exists for, and he's damn good at it. He once considered becoming the best at setting things down, but decided that it lacked panache.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Combines a stilted, overly formal speaking style with Testosterone Poisoning-style boasts.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Humongulus tends to be a playful poke at extreme bodybuilders, and is constantly boasting about his lifting abilities.
- Third-Person Person: Humongulus rarely lets a sentence go by without mentioning himself in third person.
The Beast
The Beast of the Rails
Click here to see what the Beast is eventually reduced to (SPOILERS)
A sentient train that was created by Agatha's grandfather Saturnus Heterodyne. It constantly hungers for coal and any form of metal, and to roam freely across the land devouring new and interesting things; after Saturnus gave the Beast to them, the Corbetite Monks tried to use it on their railway network but were finally forced to trick it and seal it in one of the Vaults in their Depot-Fortress.
- Ax-Crazy: When it first appears, this thing seems to be giving Castle Heterodyne a run for its money in this department, with the added danger that it doesn't obey the resident Heterodyne, or possibly doesn't believe that Agatha is a Heterodyne. Although in the end, it only kills one person (Lady Selnikov) and even that wasn't particularly intentional.
- Backseat Driver: Reduced to being an impotent one of these with the Brother-Ulm train following its defeat.
- Badass Decay: In-universe. Once an all-consuming engine of terror, now only its little mechanical "brain" survives in dingbot form, which accompanies Agatha on her further journeys.
- Berserk Button: Do not interrupt its meal.
- Boxed Crook: After Agatha brings it to heel, she keeps it around in the form of a super-intelligent speech-capable dingbot.
- Cast from Hit Points: When preparing to do something spectacular, the Beast can shorten itself for extra energy, by digesting its own wagons.
- Cool Train: It goes without saying, really.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After being defeated by Agatha and reduced to a small dingbot body, the Beast gradually becomes fiercely protective of her and even makes an friendship with the Castle.
- Defiant to the End: Continues to hurl threats even as its brain is finally physically ripped from its mangled body.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Seems to have a soft spot for cute animals, considering it was shocked and dismayed when it thought Krosp was attacking it and tried to shoo him away.
- Extreme Omnivore: According to Brother Ulm, one of the main reasons the Corbetites fear it so much is because it can subsist on literally anything, as opposed to normal trains that can only run on coal.
- Giant Eye of Doom: The first thing we see of it
- Heel–Face Turn: "Heroic" is probably a strong word for the Beast, but after being reduced to Dingbot form it seems to have accepted its lot as Agatha's minion.
- Humiliation Conga: The process of its defeat. It started when it was swarmed by the Swartzwalders who had no metal on them to manipulate. Then its energy reserve cars were cut off by Count Wolkerstorfer and dropped down a cargo lift shaft. Then it got grappled by Humongulus when it tried to magnetically lift the cars back out of the shaft. Then it had its cab ripped open. Then its core brain was unplugged, and eventually revealed to be stored in a glass jar where it impotently yells at people.
- It's All About Me / Spoiled Brat: Generally comes across as a super-powered child in desperate need of some discipline.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Made of train grates.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Much like the other living Heterodyne object we've seen so far, it is positively giddy at the prospect of devouring the Corbetites and Martellus.
- Reforged into a Minion: After its defeat in the Battle of the St. Spzac Train Yard, Agatha reforged it into an advanced dingbot in a spheroid chassis with a little smokestack. It's since teamed up with the similarly en-mobilized fragment of Castle Heterodyne that Agatha recovered in paris as Those Two Guys. It is much more mindful of its loyalties to its creator in this state. Particularly since its new body doesn't have a mouth, and thus it has no means of eating things to get stronger.
- Selective Magnetism: It has the power to selectively manipulate metal items in order to consume them. This includes Martellus' gold crown, which he notes isn't a ferrous metal and asks how it's doing that. It later pins almost all of the people around in place by holding the bits of metal in their clothes.
- Shows Damage: since the Beast uses mass conversion to power its attacks, it is possible to judge its remaining power by its length — the more wagons it has, the longer it can keep fighting.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Announces its intention to simply storm away from the fight at the Corbettite Fortress-Depot, but is then swarmed by Krosp's newly-acquired army of Swartzwalders.
- Smug Snake: Constantly reaffirms its superiority and talks down to Agatha and her allies, even as the battle turns more and more against it.
- Taking You with Me: Threatens this when it gets desperate claiming it will blow everyone up while pinning them in place, but Brother Ulm and Konig manage to grab its power core anyway.
- Those Two Guys: After it is rendered unto a super-dingbot and is joined by the Castle super-dingbot, the two become this.
- Villainous Glutton: Is called a glutton in-story, and it itself describes its gobbling up of resources as someone ravenous would his dinner.
Brother Marcus
Brother Marcus, Corbettite Train Conductor
A brother in the order who joins Vipsania and Franz on their journey to the Dragon Hoard of Hydrargyros the Godburner, providing a reference book on dragons and assistance transporting the loot in exchange for the dragon's flame-enhancer and any other dangerous Sparky creations.
- Bearer of Bad News: Reveals Franz is the Last of His Kind, or just about.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: A prominent square jaw.
- Only Sane Man: Frequently acts as a calming influence on the group and keeps them focused on the task at hand.
